Turkey: The search for agreements

The Ottoman state has embarked on a series of agreements concerning energy with different countries since last year to enhance its continuous supply. One of the latest agreements that it has concluded is a deal of 2.5 to 3 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas with Qatar.
The agreement has not been signed because the price is yet to be agreed upon. Depending on the price, Turkey is looking forward to a short and long term engagement with the world’s largest liquefied natural gas exporter. The agreements when concluded will be signed by Bota – a state-owned Turkish crude and natural gas pipelines and trading company.
Turkey has been implementing the politics of diversity to get access to oil through several routes as the Minister of Energy, Taner Yildiz, rightly said they “don’t only want to talk to one country”. With new agreements already signed in December with Russia for a South Stream gas pipeline to be built and the Nabucco–West pipeline project with Azerbaijan supported by the European Union as a passage point to Europe, Turkey has also turned to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Libya.
These policies will help Turkey to continue when sanctions on Iran come in to effect because it has been able to defer 20% of its supply form Iran to Libya. Turkey has been a key transit point of gas between the Middle East and Europe but it is feared that too much dependency on gas by Turkey can be vulnerable when suppliers decide to stop the flow especially if it is one of its main suppliers like Iran and Russia.